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3232Sophie Jones banned for racial abuse and leaves Sheffield United | Footballhttps://soccer.10ztalk.com/2019/03/20/sophie-jones-banned-for-racial-abuse-and-leaves-sheffield-united-football/
https://soccer.10ztalk.com/2019/03/20/sophie-jones-banned-for-racial-abuse-and-leaves-sheffield-united-football/#respondWed, 20 Mar 2019 14:51:56 +0000https://soccer.10ztalk.com/?p=120618The Sheffield United Women’s player Sophie Jones has left the club after being banned for five matches for racially abusing an opponent during a Championship match against Tottenham. In a statement United said that Jones’ contract had been terminated by “mutual agreement” after she was found guilty of making monkey noises at Spurs centre-back Renée […]

The Sheffield United Women’s player Sophie Jones has left the club after being banned for five matches for racially abusing an opponent during a Championship match against Tottenham.

In a statement United said that Jones’ contract had been terminated by “mutual agreement” after she was found guilty of making monkey noises at Spurs centre-back Renée Hector.

Jones had denied the charges and maintained her innocence throughout. However following a four-week investigation the FA ruled that she had broken Rule E1 – using abusive and/or insulting words – and that her behaviour constituted an “aggravated breach” of FA Rule E3 [2], as it included a reference to ethnic origin and/or colour and/or race.

In a statement Sheffield United confirmed that Jones, who was also fined £200 and ordered to attend a Football Association Inclusion and Diversity Workshop, was “disappointed with the FA’s decision”.

“The club works closely with the EFL, the FA and Kick it Out and would like to reiterate that it does not condone racism or any form of discrimination,” it added.

“Following dialogue between the club and Jones, and taking into account the length of the suspension, it has been decided that her contract, which was due for review in the summer, will be terminated by mutual agreement.”

The FA confirmed that Jones’ ban will remain in place if and when she joins a new club, whether that is in the UK or abroad.

After the incident on 6 January Hector immediately alerted the referee and later took to Twitter to reveal what had gone on.

“Such a shame that racism seems to be rising up again in football – I received some monkey noises from an opposition player,” she wrote. “The only reaction was to let the football do the talking and that we did … great start to the year!”

On Wednesday, after the verdict, Hector released a statement, saying: “There is no place for racism in our game. A zero tolerance policy is imperative in stamping this out from football therefore I welcome this verdict. No one should be subjected to racist abuse on or off the pitch and I felt a responsibility to call it out for what it was.

“I want to no concentrate on the last five games of the FAWC and trying to secure promotion with Spurs. Thank you to everyone who has supported me throughout this process.

]]>https://soccer.10ztalk.com/2019/03/20/sophie-jones-banned-for-racial-abuse-and-leaves-sheffield-united-football/feed/0Kieran Trippier looks to reset with England after patchy spell of form | Footballhttps://soccer.10ztalk.com/2019/03/20/kieran-trippier-looks-to-reset-with-england-after-patchy-spell-of-form-football/
https://soccer.10ztalk.com/2019/03/20/kieran-trippier-looks-to-reset-with-england-after-patchy-spell-of-form-football/#respondWed, 20 Mar 2019 10:07:49 +0000https://soccer.10ztalk.com/?p=120238Kieran Trippier has admitted he is fortunate to be retained in England’s squad for the Euro 2020 qualifiers against the Czech Republic and Montenegro having endured injury issues and patchy form at Tottenham this season. Gareth Southgate has selected three right-backs in his squad, with the impressive Crystal Palace defender Aaron Wan-Bissaka overlooked and, instead, […]

Kieran Trippier has admitted he is fortunate to be retained in England’s squad for the Euro 2020 qualifiers against the Czech Republic and Montenegro having endured injury issues and patchy form at Tottenham this season.

Gareth Southgate has selected three right-backs in his squad, with the impressive Crystal Palace defender Aaron Wan-Bissaka overlooked and, instead, retained in the under-21s. Trippier, a key member of the England side who reached the World Cup semi-finals last summer, has not featured at all since the north London derby against Arsenal at the beginning of March with injuries having taken their toll.

“I could have done a lot better this season,” said the Spurs defender. “I’ve picked up a lot of injuries and I’ll admit there have been games when I’ve looked back and thought: ‘I could have done this or that better.’ You know when you’ve had a bad game but it’s all about learning. There is a lot of competition – me, Trent [Alexander-Arnold], Kyle [Walker] – and you’ve got Wan-Bissaka playing really well for Palace.

“But I am here now, and I need to impress to try and start for England and do the best I can between now and the end of the season. People say coming back from the World Cup and going straight back into it again is the reason but I don’t think it is. You pick up injuries. It would have been nice to have an extra week or something but the season came around early, so you’ve just got to get on with it.”

Southgate is considering pairing Everton’s Michael Keane with Harry Maguire at the heart of England’s defence against the Czechs, in the absence of the injured John Stones, and held one-on-one meetings with his players at St George’s Park on Monday night. The squad are being supported by the performance psychologist Dr Ian Mitchell in their preparations with Dr Pippa Grange, who worked with England at the World Cup, set to leave the FA.

Mitchell was formerly with Swansea City and a member of Chris Coleman’s backroom staff in the Wales setup but has been with the FA since February 2018.
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]]>https://soccer.10ztalk.com/2019/03/20/kieran-trippier-looks-to-reset-with-england-after-patchy-spell-of-form-football/feed/0Football’s name-changing fetish shows the game’s infected with greed | Anthony Clavane | Opinionhttps://soccer.10ztalk.com/2019/03/19/footballs-name-changing-fetish-shows-the-games-infected-with-greed-anthony-clavane-opinion/
https://soccer.10ztalk.com/2019/03/19/footballs-name-changing-fetish-shows-the-games-infected-with-greed-anthony-clavane-opinion/#respondTue, 19 Mar 2019 10:54:18 +0000https://soccer.10ztalk.com/?p=119087What’s in a name? Everything, if you’re a football fan. The sport has always been driven by finance, but the post-1992 fetish for name-changing has taken commercialisation to a whole new level. And it’s spilling into our public spaces. History, tradition and community are all high on the list of the reasons why long-suffering supporters […]

What’s in a name? Everything, if you’re a football fan. The sport has always been driven by finance, but the post-1992 fetish for name-changing has taken commercialisation to a whole new level. And it’s spilling into our public spaces.

History, tradition and community are all high on the list of the reasons why long-suffering supporters stay loyal to their teams. It is fashionable to caricature those who campaign against the corporate rebranding of their clubs as traditionalist dinosaurs. But in an era when local neighbourhoods have become fractured, clinging to the original name of your team, stadium and even local railway station has become one of the few remaining signifiers of community spirit.

Which is why even Spurs-supporting north Londoners are attempting to resist the name “White Hart Lane” being consigned to the dustbin of history. It has been reported that Tottenham Hotspur’s spanking, new, state-of-the-art, 62,000-seater ground, which finally opens next month with a home game against Crystal Palace – and will host the Lilywhites’ last five home matches of the season – will be renamed with rumours that it will be called the Nike Stadium.

Spurs chairman Daniel Levy insists that no such deal has been agreed, but another equally-controversial decision made on Sunday has now appeared to bring that dreaded moment much closer. For Levy and his fellow Spurs directors have successfully lobbied the London mayor, Sadiq Khan, and Transport for London, to rename White Hart Lane railway station as “Tottenham Hotspur”. Which means that north London’s traditionalist dinosaurs – or loyal fans as I prefer to call them – will surely suffer a double whammy. The name White Hart Lane will be eradicated completely from the area, erased from history by those Stalinist corporate entities determined to commercialise public space, appropriate working-class culture and gentrify local neighbourhoods.

Changing the name of the overground station in the club’s catchment area to Tottenham Hotspur is a huge blow to the area’s heritage

Football stadiums were originally named after the districts they were constructed in. With the advent of the Premiership in 1992, however, elite clubs transformed themselves into brands, becoming cash machines for oligarchs, sheikhs and finance capitalists. Tottenham’s bitter rivals did it with the Emirates – as did Brighton with the Amex and Manchester City with the Etihad – which has allowed Arsenal, as a commercial company, to dominate the whole of its catchment area. Similarities do not end there – Gillespie Road tube station was renamed Arsenal in 1932.

Changing the name of the overground station in the club’s catchment area to Tottenham Hotspur is a huge blow to the area’s heritage. White Hart Lane is the station’s historic name. As a petition by local residents points out: “It reflects the road and ward … the heritage of the football club is to keep the name the same rather than turn an entire area into nothing more than a fanfare for a football club.”

Spurs promise to put money back into the local community. But the Gunners had promised to pay £7m towards transport improvements, including upgrading Holloway Road and Drayton Park stations – and this has clearly not happened. Local residents in Finsbury Park and Highbury feel alienated. As the Green party co-leader Siân Berry has noted, the renaming of the White Hart Lane station “opens up the slippery slope” towards other well-known stations and the network being “cluttered up with corporate branding”.

For my book Moving The Goalposts I interviewed Hull City fans who successfully stopped their club being rebranded as Hull Tigers. “My dad invested so much time and so much money on City,” one fan told me. “He went for decades. These clubs are the product of the city, of their local areas. The owners should be custodians of their clubs’ history and heritage. Whenever I go to the football I feel that my old man’s with me. It’s a lot deeper than a name change. It crystallises what we’re about as a community.”

Football’s fetish for name-changing is the latest illustration of how the sport, in the 21st century, has been infected by greed – how the beautiful game has been transformed from a paternalistic, relatively egalitarian sport into a global entertainment industry dominated by rapacious mega-brands. As Simon Kuper, the co-author of Soccernomics, puts it: “The true story of the Premier League is almost all about money.”

For the past 27 years, many football fans have been priced out of football. Since the 1990s, the cost of the average football match ticket has risen by 600%, making regular attendance something that only a certain strata of society can afford. This shift in the demographic of the game’s support had been anticipated by a 1991 FA report that noted how, in a consumer society, the leisure sector moved “upmarket so as to follow the affluent middle-class consumer”.

But such gentrification is now being resisted both on and off the pitch – both inside and outside the ground. Local north Londoners are pushing back against corporate domination. The idea of local pride – a sense of shared values, belonging and community – lives on. If there is hope it lies in the traditionalist dinosaurs.

]]>https://soccer.10ztalk.com/2019/03/19/footballs-name-changing-fetish-shows-the-games-infected-with-greed-anthony-clavane-opinion/feed/0Premier League: fight for top four is on – just don’t mention the b-word | Footballhttps://soccer.10ztalk.com/2019/03/18/premier-league-fight-for-top-four-is-on-just-dont-mention-the-b-word-football/
https://soccer.10ztalk.com/2019/03/18/premier-league-fight-for-top-four-is-on-just-dont-mention-the-b-word-football/#respondMon, 18 Mar 2019 21:03:57 +0000https://soccer.10ztalk.com/?p=118582

It is hard to place the exact moment when “bottle” became such an overused part of football’s lingua franca but nowadays it is hard to get through a weekend without several cases. You do not have to delve deep to find someone suggesting Chelsea bottled it at Goodison Park or Liverpool had the bottle to […]

It is hard to place the exact moment when “bottle” became such an overused part of football’s lingua francabut nowadays it is hard to get through a weekend without several cases. You do not have to delve deep to find someone suggesting Chelsea bottled it at Goodison Park or Liverpool had the bottle to push themselves to a handy three points at Fulham.

A recent example that was particularly jarring occurred when the bottle question was lobbed at Marcus Rashford just as he stood at the eye of the swirling storm of tension that was a last-gasp penalty, away from home at Paris Saint-Germain, to decide who would prevail in the Champions League knockouts. And so the commentator waded in: “HAS HE GOT THE BOTTLE?”

Hang on a second. First of all, anyone in any situation who steps up to take a crunch penalty is already showing a highly respectable level of courage. Second, if the inference is that missing such an opportunity makes someone a bottler, something is very wrong. Distilling an entire match, or competition, into whether one player deals with pressure in one action does not make much sense in a team sport.

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The bottle question has become so pervasive it filters down from the top. Recently a talented 10-year-old on a three-month trial at a Premier League academy spent the entire experience trying to cope with a relentless test of his character. Could he withstand the fact that the rest of his temporary teammates – already established in the academy – either ignored him or picked on him, joking collectively at his expense from day one with no intervention from the coaches? Three months were not spent trying to show what he could do with a ball but instead having his confidence shredded. Without showing the required bottle, he was left to pick up the pieces.

So here we are, heading into the international break, the last pause for breath before club football resumes for the sharp end of the season. All the players and managers know that this is the last chance to take stock, to grab a second to try to clear their heads before the madness comes. When the Premier League restarts over the final weekend of March it is a time for finding peak form and holding nerves. Bottles (sigh) will start flying about everywhere.

Arsenal’s Alexandre Lacazette wins the penalty which completed a 2-0 victory over Manchester United which sees the Gunners occupy fourth place over the international break. Photograph: Matthew Impey/Rex/Shutterstock

While the pressure is on in a very specialised way for Manchester City and Liverpool with the title at stake, there is a different kind of tension that grips the four teams below them in the knowledge that not everyone out of Tottenham, Arsenal, Manchester United and Chelseawill make it over the Champions League line they are all so desperate to cross.

It is a treacherous period – in effect balancing two eggs on wooden spoons as they try to sprint onwards as fast as they can without tumbling. Balancing the target of a European trophy in one hand, the chase for the top-four Premier League position in the other, it is going to be a hard fall for those who do not make it.

Just to add to the stress, because of the number of English teams still involved in Europe, there is a chance that a top-four finish will not even deliver a Champions League place. Admittedly quite a lot of permutations have to happen here but there are a maximum of five places available for English clubs. If a Premier League team win the Champions League and finish outside the top four, and Arsenal or Chelsea win the Europa League and finish outside the top four, then only the top three will join them.

With only four points separating the teams occupying third to sixth it could be anybody’s game. Tottenham are in pole position, despite an untimely dip in league form garnering only one point from a possible 12. They also have some extraordinarily loaded fixtures ahead, with the emotional return home now pencilled in for the Crystal Palace game on Wednesday 3 April and then a mini-series against Manchester City which will test them to the limit.

Arsenal are just a point behind in fourth having found some rhythm and confidence lately. A warm weather break to Dubai is scheduled for those not on international duty and, while they are the only ones who do not face a fellow member of the top six in their run-in, they do have some potential googlies at clubs just outside, such as Wolves, Watford and Everton, knowing away games – of which they have five – are not their forte.

Then there is Manchester United, and Ole Gunnar Solskjær was quick to remind his players when they slunk out of the FA Cup with a rare below-par display at Wolves that April and May is the time he expects them to rise.

Chelsea find themselves in sixth spot and chasing. César Azpilicueta outlined Chelsea’s frustration after slipping up at Everton on Sunday. “Every time you don’t get three points you put yourself in a more difficult position,” he lamented before a rallying call: “We are going to fight because we cannot miss Champions League qualification.” This break perhaps comes at a useful time for a squad who need to regroup – time to buckle up for the nerve-racking final push.

]]>https://soccer.10ztalk.com/2019/03/18/premier-league-fight-for-top-four-is-on-just-dont-mention-the-b-word-football/feed/0Tottenham Hotspur station is a bad idea | Brief letters | Footballhttps://soccer.10ztalk.com/2019/03/18/tottenham-hotspur-station-is-a-bad-idea-brief-letters-football/
https://soccer.10ztalk.com/2019/03/18/tottenham-hotspur-station-is-a-bad-idea-brief-letters-football/#respondMon, 18 Mar 2019 19:44:17 +0000https://soccer.10ztalk.com/?p=118496I’m a long-term Tottenham resident and lifelong Spurs fan living just a few minutes’ walk from the stadium. There is no need to waste public money on renaming White Hart Lane rail station as Tottenham Hotspur (Report, 18 March). Spurs are known for playing at “The Lane”. The effort by the current owners of Spurs […]

I’m a long-term Tottenham resident and lifelong Spurs fan living just a few minutes’ walk from the stadium. There is no need to waste public money on renaming White Hart Lane rail station as Tottenham Hotspur (Report, 18 March). Spurs are known for playing at “The Lane”. The effort by the current owners of Spurs to get the name changed is another attempt by corporate interests to makeover and rebrand Tottenham. It is a vibrant multicultural working-class area with a strong sense of community. Neoliberalism can’t stand that.Keith FlettTottenham, London

• Michael Cunningham (Letters, 16 March) opines that the best thing about having a car is the access that it gives to country walking. We feel that far better walking exists for those who use public transport to delight in linear rambles; they no longer have to spend their lives walking round in circles to get back to a car.Eden BlythFriends of Moorsbus, Pickering, North Yorkshire

• Carl Arntzen states “electricity for solutions such as heat pumps needs to come from somewhere” (Letters, 12 March). What is wrong with making it law for all new-build houses to have solar panels on their roofs with battery storage? No need for any sort of gas then.Val SpougeGreat Notley, Essex

]]>https://soccer.10ztalk.com/2019/03/18/tottenham-hotspur-station-is-a-bad-idea-brief-letters-football/feed/0London railway station to be renamed Tottenham Hotspur | UK newshttps://soccer.10ztalk.com/2019/03/17/london-railway-station-to-be-renamed-tottenham-hotspur-uk-news/
https://soccer.10ztalk.com/2019/03/17/london-railway-station-to-be-renamed-tottenham-hotspur-uk-news/#respondSun, 17 Mar 2019 23:27:20 +0000https://soccer.10ztalk.com/?p=117412The railway station near Tottenham Hotspur’s new stadium is to be renamed after the club lobbied the London mayor, Sadiq Khan, and his transport office, who had insisted that the club should pay more than £14.7m for the privilege. The north London Premier League club first approached Transport for London (TfL) more than two years […]

The railway station near Tottenham Hotspur’s new stadium is to be renamed after the club lobbied the London mayor, Sadiq Khan, and his transport office, who had insisted that the club should pay more than £14.7m for the privilege.

The north London Premier League club first approached Transport for London (TfL) more than two years ago wanting to change the name of White Hart Lane station to Tottenham Hotspur.

A memo of understanding between the club and TfL, controlled by Khan, is now being drafted but Spurs won’t have to meet the multimillion pound asking price which it has vigorously contested.

The club, one of Britain’s wealthiest, will regard the decision as a win as it seeks to cash in on a new 62,000-capacity stadium which has been hit by delays and escalating costs. However, the move is likely to spark concern about the loss of revenue and the precedent it sets for the corporatisation of London’s heritage transport network.

TfL has a policy of not selling the names of designated heritage stations on a long-term basis but agreed after initial meetings with Spurs to explore the idea. A third party valuation of what it would be worth if the station was renamed for a 10-year period was put at £11.7m, in addition to implementation costs of £3m. Tottenham challenged this valuation and said it did not want to pay.

TfL briefed Khan, the transport body’s chairman, who said that the station name change would only be possible on the basis of the commercial terms and, even then, would be subject to a public consultation.

Since then, however, Tottenham has been telling would-be commercial partners that the station name will be changed, according to documents seen by the Guardian.

The U-turn comes after meetings between Tottenham, TfL and London mayoral officials where the club’s executive director, Donna Cullen, pressed its case. She stated that the name change was critical to realising a £250m commercial strategy revolving around selling stadium naming rights to a major partner and that the club did not want the renaming to be treated as a commercial deal.

At one meeting in December 2017 with Leah Kreitzman, the mayoral director for external and international affairs, Cullen suggested the club could fund a new escalator at Tottenham Hale station instead of paying the commercial fee. TfL decided the cost would be a minimum of £3.5m and was of limited value.

Tottenham Hotspur declined to comment.

A spokesperson for the mayor of London said: “The mayor does not support setting a precedent of selling off station names. However, a unique brand partnership between TfL and Tottenham Hotspur would benefit both TfL and Tottenham, supporting significant investment to create a new sport, leisure and entertainment destination as part of the wider regeneration of the area. TfL is still in discussions about this opportunity.”

“There’s the question of the money, too, of course. If something is worth the money then that’s what should be handed over if this is going to happen,” she said. “How this has come about will also be of great interest to me and others members of the London assembly. A decision of this nature should be subject to the greatest of scrutiny and should definitely be subject to a public consultation.”

A TfL spokesperson said: “TfL has substantial experience in delivering successful commercial partnerships for the benefit of its customers and London in general. Opportunities of this nature are always thoroughly evaluated before completion to ensure that TfL delivers best value for its stakeholders.”

An underground station on the Piccadilly line has had the name of Tottenham’s north London rivals, Arsenal, since it was changed from Gillespie Road in 1932 following a campaign. TfL, created in 2000 as part of the Greater London authority, has developed a policy of not selling the names of heritage stations, but sometimesdoes so for 24-hour periods for public relations purposes.

Khan’s predecessor, Boris Johnson, ruled out the renaming of stations, largely due to the cost of changing the thousands of signs and maps across the network. In 2013, TfL also rejected a report by a London Conservative assembly member that stations should have corporate sponsors, with privatised stations bearing branded names such as Burberry by Bond Street; Knightsbridge, Home of Harrods and Virgin Euston.

]]>https://soccer.10ztalk.com/2019/03/17/london-railway-station-to-be-renamed-tottenham-hotspur-uk-news/feed/0Spurs announce the first Premier League game in their new stadiumhttps://soccer.10ztalk.com/2019/03/17/spurs-announce-the-first-premier-league-game-in-their-new-stadium/
https://soccer.10ztalk.com/2019/03/17/spurs-announce-the-first-premier-league-game-in-their-new-stadium/#respondSun, 17 Mar 2019 17:51:15 +0000https://soccer.10ztalk.com/?p=117047

Tottenham Hotspur have provisionally confirmed Crystal Palace as the first opponents of their new stadium on April 3. Spurs held discussions with the Premier League governing body last week to determine the first match at the new 62,000-seater venue, and with Brighton progressing to the FA Cup semi-finals, Crystal Palace will now travel to the new home early […]

Tottenham Hotspur have provisionally confirmed Crystal Palace as the first opponents of their new stadium on April 3.

Spurs held discussions with the Premier League governing body last week to determine the first match at the new 62,000-seater venue, and with Brighton progressing to the FA Cup semi-finals, Crystal Palace will now travel to the new home early next month to kick start a new era in north London.

Why has the first match taken this long? Five key things to know…

The £1billion stadium was due to open in September.

However, it was delayed as a result of problems with the fire and safety alarms.

The club had hoped to move into the stadium by “January or February” but club chairman Daniel Levy further postponed the move.

Spurs have had to continue playing their home matches at Wembley.

The club have now confirmed a provisional date for their opening match, further safety tests permitting.

The Seagulls were due to play Spurs in the Premier League on April 7 but after beating Millwall in a penalty shoot-out on Sunday, they will now face Manchester City in the penultimate stage of the FA Cup on that same weekend.

Spurs will host the first ever match at the stadium on March 24 with the club’s U-18s set to test drive the venue against Southampton with a capacity of 30,000.

This will be followed by a legends match six days later, with the capacity increasing to 45,000, and then the aforementioned Palace match.

A Spurs statement read: “Following Brighton’s victory against Millwall in the quarter-finals of the FA Cup this afternoon, we can confirm that the first Premier League match in our new stadium will be against Crystal Palace on Wednesday 3 April (kick-off time TBC).

“This will be followed on Tuesday 9 April by the first leg of our UEFA Champions League quarter-final against Manchester City, kick-off 8pm.

“We shall now play Brighton in the Premier League at the new stadium on either Tuesday 23 or Wednesday 24 April.”

]]>https://soccer.10ztalk.com/2019/03/17/spurs-announce-the-first-premier-league-game-in-their-new-stadium/feed/0Champions League draw pits Spurs against Man City and Man Utd with Barcelona | Footballhttps://soccer.10ztalk.com/2019/03/15/champions-league-draw-pits-spurs-against-man-city-and-man-utd-with-barcelona-football/
https://soccer.10ztalk.com/2019/03/15/champions-league-draw-pits-spurs-against-man-city-and-man-utd-with-barcelona-football/#respondFri, 15 Mar 2019 22:09:53 +0000https://soccer.10ztalk.com/?p=114985Tottenham and Manchester City will face each other in an all-English Champions League quarter-final next month. Liverpool, last year’s beaten finalists, received arguably the most favourable draw after being paired with Porto, while Manchester United have a daunting tie against Barcelona. United and Liverpool will meet in the semi-finals if they reach that stage, with […]

Liverpool, last year’s beaten finalists, received arguably the most favourable draw after being paired with Porto, while Manchester United have a daunting tie against Barcelona.

United and Liverpool will meet in the semi-finals if they reach that stage, with Tottenham or City facing either Ajax or Juventus.

City won both of their Premier League matches against Tottenham last season and also beat Mauricio Pochettino’s side at Wembley earlier this campaign. The two sides will meet each other three times in 12 days, with the Premier League game at the Etihad scheduled for 20 April.

United’s tie against Barcelona means their interim manager, Ole Gunnar Solskjær, will enjoy another trip to the Camp Nou, where he scored the winner in their 1999 Champions League final win over Bayern Munich.

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United were drawn to be away first but Uefa has confirmed Old Trafford will host the first leg to avoid Manchester being the venue for two Champions League ties in the same week.

“A reminder that Man City and Manchester United are not able to play at home on the same night, nor on consecutive nights, following a decision made by the relevant local authorities. The first leg of Manchester United v Barcelona will therefore be at Old Trafford,” said a Uefa tweet.

The first legs of the quarter-finals will take place on 9 and 10 April, with the second legs on 16 and 17 April.

]]>https://soccer.10ztalk.com/2019/03/15/champions-league-draw-pits-spurs-against-man-city-and-man-utd-with-barcelona-football/feed/0Champions League quarter-finals: tie-by-tie analysis and verdict | Footballhttps://soccer.10ztalk.com/2019/03/15/champions-league-quarter-finals-tie-by-tie-analysis-and-verdict-football/
https://soccer.10ztalk.com/2019/03/15/champions-league-quarter-finals-tie-by-tie-analysis-and-verdict-football/#respondFri, 15 Mar 2019 15:32:23 +0000https://soccer.10ztalk.com/?p=114501Ajax v Juventus A great opportunity for Juventus and Cristiano Ronaldo to take a step closer to the only title that really matters to the club now that they have won seven straight scudetti and are on their way to an eighth. Ronaldo showed in the last 16 why the club signed him for €100m […]

Ajax v Juventus

A great opportunity for Juventus and Cristiano Ronaldo to take a step closer to the only title that really matters to the club now that they have won seven straight scudetti and are on their way to an eighth.

Ronaldo showed in the last 16 why the club signed him for €100m at the age of 33, scoring a hat-trick in the return leg against Atlético Madrid as Juve squeezed through 3-2 on aggregate. The coach, Max Allegri, likes to change his formation depending on the opposition but has been boosted by the upturn in form of players such as Emre Can and Federico Bernardeschi in recent weeks.

Juve won’t have it all their way though in this tie. Ajax rattled Bayern Munich in the group stage and took Real Madrid apart in the last 16. Ajax prefer to play 4-2-3-1 under Erik ten Hag but they’ve occasionally gone 4-3-3, against Benfica and Bayern for example – with Daley Blind going into midfield in the latter game.

The former Southampton forward Dusan Tadic has been outstanding in this European run and the 25-year-old Netherlands-born Morocco international Hakim Ziyech has been almost impossible to defend against. Add to that the young Dutch stars, such as Frenkie De Jong and Matthijs De Ligt, and this will be a fascinating tie.

Verdict Juventus

Liverpool v Porto

A re-run of last season’s last-16 tie when Liverpool blew Porto away, winning 5-0 at the Dragão before a goalless draw at Anfield. Jürgen Klopp’s team are unlikely to repeat that result as this season’s Porto are made of sterner stuff.

They are, together with Ajax, the surprise package of this season’s Champions League. True, their group, consisting of Galatasaray, Lokomotiv Moscow and Schalke, was one of the easiest but they have scored 19 goals in eight Champions League games and disposed of Roma in the last 16 (although they needed extra time to go through).

The coach, Sergio Conceição, has done a remarkable job with a fairly limited squad. They are more physical than in recent years, with some of their best players, such as Alex Telles (left-back, assist maker and penalty taker), Éder Militão (rugged defender who has agreed to join Real Madrid in the summer for €50m) and Danilo (defensive midfield linchpin), being defence-minded. Liverpool will miss the suspended Andy Robertson in the first leg but should have too much quality.

Verdict Liverpool

Manchester United v Barcelona

The tie of the round, with a rejuvenated Manchester United taking on surely the best team in Europe at the moment. United were somewhat fortunate to get past Paris Saint-Germain in the last-16 – not because of the late VAR-penalty but the fact that PSG were much the better team over the two legs – but in Romelu Lukaku and Marcus Rashford Ole Gunnar Solskjær’s team have the attacking power to hurt Barça.

But then, the Catalan club have Lionel Messi and, as he showed against Lyon in the return leg of that last-16 tie, there is sometimes no answer to that man’s genius.

The last two meetings between these two sides have been in the final of this competition with Barcelona winning both, 3-1 at Wembley in 2011 and 2-0 in 2009 in Rome. Messi was on the scoresheet on both occasions and who would bet against him being decisive again.

Verdict Barcelona

Tottenham v Manchester City

An all-Premier League tie was always likely in the quarter-finals and the draw delivered an extremely intriguing one. Pep Guardiola has won his past three meetings against Mauricio Pochettino and City will be the favourites but Spurs have rattled City before and can do so again.

The feeling is that Tottenham are over their blip and they were certainly impressive against Dortmund in the last-16, winning both legs on their way to a 4-0 aggregate victory. Harry Kane is back from his injury and Dele Alli is set to return and the fact that Spurs will be playing in their new stadium cannot be underestimated. It will be a cracking atmosphere.

City are in a rich vein of form, though, having won their last 10 games (if you include the Carabao Cup final win on penalties against Chelsea) and if Fernandinho is back from injury then Spurs’ task will be even harder.

So the Champions League quarter-finals have been set, and we’ve got some delicious ties. We’ve got two rematches of finals past as Manchester United face-off against Barcelona, recalling the 2009 and 2011 showpieces (as well as the semi-final in 2008) whilst Ajax take-on Juventus, a rematch that goes all the way back to 1996 when […]

So the Champions League quarter-finals have been set, and we’ve got some delicious ties.

We’ve got two rematches of finals past as Manchester United face-off against Barcelona, recalling the 2009 and 2011 showpieces (as well as the semi-final in 2008) whilst Ajax take-on Juventus, a rematch that goes all the way back to 1996 when the Bianconeri ended Ajax’s attempts to defend their title at the very last hurdle.

There were only two sides of the last eight that had never won the Champions League before and both of them have been drawn to face each other. Spurs and Manchester City will throw down in what is sure to be a bruising all-Premier-League clash whilst Liverpool will round out the quarters by facing off against Porto.

Who were the winners and losers of the draw? Read on and find out!

Winner: Liverpool

Well that’s pretty good, eh? After drawing the second-toughest group and then arguably the second or third toughest possible round of 16 opponent, Liverpool have gotten an easy ride in the quarter-finals. Sure, Porto are no mugs, but they’re an well within Liverpool’s grasp.

This will be a double-edged bonus for the Reds. Not only do they have a fairly guaranteed path into the semi-finals (they thrashed Porto 0-5 in last season’s round of 16) for the second year in a row, but now they will find it easier to keep up the pressure in the Premier League title race. The Porto tie sandwiches a match against Chelsea, and were the Dragons fearsome opponents then the chances of the Reds being upset by the Blues would have been very high; now they can allocate their resources more appropriately.

Everything’s coming up Klopp!

Loser: Manchester United

Ole’s at the wheel but the bus is heading for the side of a mountain called Barcelona! After overcoming the gigantic PSG in the last round, Manchester United must now take on the best side in the competition so far who just so happen to have the best player in the world too.

United will have no fear, and past history shows that as long as it’s not a final, they actually fare pretty well against the Blaugrana. But this is a sizeable task that has been placed before them. Barça are yet to lose a game in the competition thus far and bar a couple of periods in the second halves away to Spurs and Lyon, they have controlled every game from start to finish.

Never write United off (mountains are there to be climbed!) but this draw was not kind to Solskjaer’s men.

Winner: Cristiano Ronaldo

Cristiano Ronaldo had scored just one Champions League goal coming into the round of 16. It wasn’t a good return for a player Juve signed to win this competition in particular. Then he drew a blank away to Atleti, but that was obviously a fluke because he loves it against the Madrid side and sure enough, he hammered a second leg hat-trick to help Juve progress.

Now he’s been drawn against Ajax, and whilst it’s not quite the 25 goals he has against Atleti, he does have an impressive seven goals in five games against them, and given he was scoreless in his first contest that means he’s scored seven goals in his last four games. And yep, that includes a hat-trick. Wanna bet on him bagging another one in the quarters?

Loser: The big boys

PSG should have steamrollered Manchester United, that they didn’t was a horrific embarrassment, but having seen the draw they will even more furious as they would have been given the chance at revenge against Barcelona. The chance to avenge the 6-1! Instead they created a bottlejob almost as impressive as that one. Oh well.

Bayern Munich and Real Madrid, meanwhile, are perennial fixtures in the final four or at least the quarter-finals. They’ve won five of the last six editions of the tournament and both should have progressed (Bayern moreso because they kept a clean sheet at Anfield and Liverpool are poor away from home). Instead they lost, and Bayern missed out on a surefire path to yet another semi-final whilst Los Blancos won’t get to have a showstopping showdown with Cristiano Ronaldo.

Winner: Premier League

It’s been 10 years since the Premier League last had four clubs in the quarter-final stage. That year three of them made the semi-finals (because one of them was eliminated by another) and although none of them won it, that so many reached the latter stages was a huge boost for the league’s standing across the globe.

Now, it’s happened again. Half the quarter-finalists are from the Premier League and what’s even better is that two of the sides have been drawn against each other whilst another has the easiest draw possible. So that’s half of the semi-finalists that will also represent the Premier League and there’s a chance it could be three again if Manchester United can somehow upset Barcelona.

Good times for England’s top flight.

Loser: Pep and Poch

Intra-league ties in the Champions League always have a weird sort of feeling to them. Intra-Premier League ones especially so because the helter skelter style of football in England is so out of step with the way Champions League football is played.

What’s worse than that is also fixture repetition. When you play an opponent too many times in too short a window then tactically planning for the games becomes a nightmare. Do you go strongest line-up first? Won’t that give your plans away to your opponent? Which game do you prioritise? How do you juggle your squad?

Well, Manchester City vs. Spurs presents us with both of these problems! Over 12 days in April, Mauricio Pochettino and Pep Guardiola will have to lead their sides out against one another no less than three times. That many games in that short a space of time is sure to lead to some strange results, and even if City prevail in Europe that could leave Spurs perfectly poised to strike back and destroy the Sky Blues’ title challenge. Essentially, there’s no winners here.